Amazon continues to improve its advertising functions. One of the biggest changes made recently is the addition of Amazon Display, which gives sellers the ability to leverage some of the ad supply that is normally dedicated to programmatic (DSP). So, what’s the difference…
- What are Display Campaigns?
- Display Ads can be bought through Amazon Sponsored Display campaigns in the Amazon Ad Console and Amazon DSP platform. Display Ads can complement your Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands strategy by expanding your presence into the early stages of a shopper’s journey.
- In these last few years, we’ve seen the consumer’s purchase path is no longer linear. It has become an interconnected pathway across the different stages of their journey. There is no one way that customers discover and experience brands. Every product is different, every customer is different and the touch-points until the purchase is made are also very different
- Sponsored Display and DSP Overview
- Advertisers who used both Amazon Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP together have seen a 15% increase in New-to-Brand sales and a 7% increase in sales, compared those that used only one of them. In each stage of the shopping journey, Amazon DSP behavioral targeting can be complemented by Sponsored Display Product Targeting (Contextual Targeting). Therefore, if Amazon DSP can reach groups of people who exhibit the same shopping behavior and interests, then Sponsored Display Product Targeting can reach the people that are shopping in the same aisle (category).
- Amazon Sponsored Display
- With Amazon Sponsored Display, the advertiser has the possibility to reach shoppers that are not actively looking for the advertised products. For example, you might want to show a battery-pack add in the Toys & Games category, on top of the usual Electronics category.
Choosing the right Bid Optimization Type in Sponsored Display campaigns is crucial to your advertising strategy.
Cost per Click (CPC) has been the only bidding option for a long time on Amazon. CPC is best used when you want to Drive Sales and Increase Consideration by optimizing for page visits and conversions.
VCPM stands for Viewable Cost Per Mille (thousand), where you pay a price per 1,000 viewable impressions of your ad. This bid type is best used when you want to Build Awareness and optimize for Viewable Impressions.
One of the main differences between the CPC bid and the VCPM bid is at the attribution level. If with CPC, the sale would get attributed to the ad clicked; with VCPM, the sale gets attributed when the client clicks or views an ad.
Amazon DSP
With Amazon DSP, the advertiser has access to Exclusive Amazon Audiences and can reach shoppers on Amazon sites and apps and off Amazon through the Amazon Publisher Service and Third Party Exchanges.
- Amazon advertising helps brands meet their customers in every stage of their journey when it matters most. There are seven primary Amazon Audiences categories:
- Content-based audiences – based on search, browse, buy, and streaming activities
- Channel-based audiences – frequent users of Fire TV, IMDB, Prime Video, Twitch, and Amazon Music
- Demographic audiences
- Lifestyle audiences reflect the variety of shopping and streaming behaviors that reflect Lifestyle interests
- Interest audiences which include prospective buyers based on what they usually browse and buy
- Life Event Audiences allow advertisers to introduce relevant products around certain life moments such as getting married or renovating the house
- In-market audiences – Amazon’s most popular audience segment.
- Using Sponsored Display and DSP together in each stage of the funnel:
- Awareness stage – Advertisers can use DSP to utilize 3rd party audiences and Amazon Audiences to reach new clients both off and on Amazon. Sponsored Display comes in at this stage by allowing you to target shoppers in different categories than the one you are selling in.
- Interest stage – DSP can be used to continue targeting 3rd party audiences and Amazon Audiences and Lookalikes based on 1st party advertiser-hashed audiences. Sponsored Display can be used to advertise in specific categories to reach new clients that are shopping in your client’s category.
- Consideration stage – With DSP, advertisers can reach audiences who have viewed their products, but have not yet purchased. With Sponsored Display, advertisers can choose to optimize bids for page visits with CPC bidding and click-based attribution to get closer to audiences that are more likely to convert.
- Conversion stage – With DSP you can remarket to audiences that have purchased your client’s products. With Sponsored Display you can optimize bids for conversions with CPC bidding and click-based attribution. Also, category contextual targeting can also be used to cross-sell to other products.
Wrap-up
Using both Amazon Sponsored Display and Amazon DSP to capture users in different stages of their buying journey can lead to an increase in awareness and new-to-brand sales, but it also spills into regular sales, providing a lift there as well.
If you have additional questions or want us to help you on your Amazon journey, don’t hesitate to contact the BellaVix Team.
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